Humanism

I am required to discus 3 learning theories, after picking the obvious two I started to
read about the humanist approach, in particular the work of Carl Rogers.

Humanism is a philosophy on which the self is the centre, ruled by ethics and moral
codes that protect and develop individual. Belief in the supernatural is rejected as are
religious doctrines that suppress or aim to control the individual. Humanism is for me
a way of empowering the self and trusting that we as humans can make the right
decisions for the good of each other. A powerful and optimistic concept which I feel
is flawed by the fact that as humans we are flawed.

Applying humanism to learning creates some very interesting theories, of which Carl
Rogers is one of the best known. He identifies two ways of learning, Cognitive and
experiential.

Cognitive learning he argues is meaningless, what he says is that we as humans have

an inbuilt desire and motivation to learn, as an animal has motivation to seek food and
shelter, we have similar but more complex desires. Cognitive learning he implies is to
force the individual to learn with no clear relevance to meaning, learning for
learning’s sake. Rogers says that learning should be initiated by the learner and with
subjects that they want to learn in this way it is natural and is in keeping with the
human instinct.

Experiential learning then is in Rogers’s words ‘significant’ the role of the teacher is
as facilitator, the student the initiator. Find out what the learners needs and desires are
then create the right environment, give the correct resources and discuss and support
the learner but not in an overbearing way.

The humanistic approach to learning is in many ways an ideal that for me seems too
optimistic but has some very important and relevant insights regarding human instinct
in particular to understand our basic needs and desires as individuals.